The Pope on Twitter – Day 1 305K Followers

Today, I noticed that the Pope opened Twitter accounts in seven different languages. It makes sense that he would want a way to instantly connect to the 1.2 billion followers the Church has, and evangelize to those that don’t. I’m not sure what the Pope will do with his Twitter account as he has not sent one message out yet. Image that just by opening an account millions of people will likely sign up in the next few days. That first Tweet will be in the spotlight, in the news, and spread across all social media platforms quickly.

I viewed hundreds of Tweets today to the Pope, some welcoming, some very nasty. I’m sure the Vatican was expecting to open up a dialog, with the World about Religion and other topics. It was a little surprising to me that an institution that has been relatively private (the Vatican) would open its doors to such a public, social venue like Twitter. However, it’s also an opportunity for the Church to reach out to millions with any messages they send out. I’m looking forward to finding out if social media will make the Pope seem more open and less of a figure we only see waving from a balcony. Hopefully, the Pope’s social media effort will show the human side of the Pope.